Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting to vote on Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on April 4. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday said that if Republicans controlled the Senate, Democrats would have chosen a more moderate Supreme Court nominee than Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Driving the news: The Senate Judiciary Committee today is expected to vote on Jackson's nomination to the high court — a vote anticipated to fall mainly along party lines.
What they're saying: "If we get back the Senate and we're in charge of this body and there's judicial openings, we will talk to our colleagues on the other side," Graham said. "But if we were in charge, she would not have been before this committee. You would have had somebody more moderate than this."
- Graham said on Thursday that he would oppose and vote against Jackson's nomination. This will be the first time since joining the Senate that he would against a Supreme Court nominee.
- The Republican senator previously supported Jackson's appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where he was one of only three Republicans to vote in favor of Jackson.
Why it matters: With the upcoming 2022 midterm elections, Democrats' slim majority in the Senate hangs in the balance.
The other side: “If Senate Republicans had their way, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court would not even have received a hearing," said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Nora Keefe in a statement.
- She added: "Republicans' shameful and relentless attacks on a nominee as qualified as Judge Jackson reinforce the stakes of this year’s election and will remind voters why we must defend and expand our Democratic Senate majority with the power to confirm Supreme Court justices."